The authority, however, on which this hypothesis rested not being deemed satisfactory, it was deter mined by the Bengal government that an expedition should be undertaken to ascertain how the fact stood ; and Captains Raper and Hearsay, accompa nied by Lieutenant Webb, assistant-surveyor, set out in the spring of the year 1908, in order to clear up this point ; and from their observations, and those of more recent travellers, it has now been as certained, that the main sources of the Ganges are all on the southern side of the great Himalaya chain; and that, reckoning from the westward, they consist of, 1. The Gumna (whose two great branches are the Girree and the Tome); 2. The Bhagarathe, whose source is near the celebrated spot called Gangoutri, where the Cow's Mouth is supposed to be situated ; and, 3. The Alakananda, with its nu merous tributary streams, the last of which rivers is now acknowledged as the main branch of the Ganges.
The object of Captains Raper and Hearsay was to penetrate as far as possible to the sources of the two great branches, the Bhagarathe and the Alaka nanda. With great difficulty and fatigue they ap proached near enough to Gangoutri, to enable them to conclude, from the contraction of the stream, and the stupendous height and unbroken sides of the Himalaya mountains, that " there can be no doubt but the source of that branch is situated in the snowy range;" and that " any other hypothesis can scarce ly be reconciled to hydrostatical principles." Not quite satisfied, however, with this conclusion, they dispatched one of those fanatics of India, known by the name of Fakir, who deem a pilgrimage to Gan goutri to have the effect of redeeming the person performing it from all the troubles of this life, and of ensuring him a happy passage through all the stages of transmigration, which he is destined to undergo in another, to push his inquiries farther in to the mountains. This man reported, on his re turn, that a few miles beyond Gangoutri, the river was lost under vast beds of snow, and that a rock in the midst of the rushing stream resembled the body and head of a cow ; and here the valley was termi nated by the steep and wall-sided mountain.
The party next set out in order to trace the other great stream of the Ganges, the Alakananda, and succeeded in reaching a spot four or five miles be yond the temple of Bhadrinath, where the stream was narrowed to eighteen or twenty feet, and where " the north faces of the mountains were completely covered with snow from the summit to the base." A little way beyond this place was a cascade named Barsie d'Hara, where the Alakananda (or, as some times called, the Vishnuganga) was entirely conceal ed under immense heaps of snow, beyond which no traveller has been known to pass. Yet this place
was estimated to be still distant about twenty miles from the southern front of the Himalaya chain. In these lofty regions, beyond Bhadrinath, stands the populous town of Manah, consisting of two hundred houses ; the inhabitants of a different race from the generality of the mountaineers; and from their broad faces, small eyes, and olive-coloured complexions, evidently of a Tartar origin. Seven hundred vil lages are said to be attached to the Temple of Bhad rinath, whose sanctity may be estimated by the fact of no less than 40,000 pilgrims, chiefly fakirs, hav ing visited it that year.
Not less holy in the estimation of the Hindoos, though less frequented from the difficulty of access, is the source of the main stream of the Alakananda, named the Caligunga, near which is situated the Temple of Kedar-nath, at an elevation of 12,000 feet nearly above the level of the sea. This place was not visited by Messrs Raper and Hearsay, but its height has recently been ascertained barometri cally by Captain Webb.
Though this expedition threw considerable light on the nature of the country between the plains of Hindostan and the southern base of the Himalaya Mountains, and succeeded in tracing two of the most considerable branches of the Ganges nearly to their sources, still the great chain of the Himalaya itself had not yet been approached, and the alti tude of its various peaks above the level of the sea remained undecided. The account, however, given by Captain Raper (Asiatic Researches, Vol. XII.) is full of interesting and important details.
The task of penetrating this vast chain was left to the exertions of a more daring traveller. Mr Moorcroft, accompanied by Captain Hearsay, the same who had been on the former expedition, and by a Hindoo Pundit, of the name of Harkh Deo, set out with the hope of finding a passage across these mountains into the regions of Tartary, in or der to purchase horses and the shawl-goat, and, at the same time, to collect such geographical informa tion respecting these unknown regions as might fall within their reach. With the latter view, the learn ed pundit was engaged for the express purpose of striding over these mountainous regions, for the whole route, in regular paces of four feet each ; a task which, it seems, he performed with exemplary patience and perseverance across rocks and rivers and the most rugged precipices, without failing or faultering, except on one single occasion, where a piece of rock had slipped out of a narrow ledge on the very verge of a tremendous declivity, and left a gap just wide enough to show an abyss below, of a depth sufficient to appal the stoutest heart.